"What Do You Get When You Load Six Kids and Your Mother in a Van, Then Take Off On a Vacation With No Reservations or Even an Idea of Where to Go?" TToT Week 42

People, we had SO MUCH FUN!

Adventure and intrigue and amazement and doubt and laughter and awe and silliness and a boatload of photos to document it all.

Be prepared, because for the foreseeable future, every post I write will be about this vacation.

So, to answer the question in the title, you get lots and lots and lots of stories and photos!

Lucky for you, since everyone knows there is nothing more fun than to sit through the vacation photos of another family.

Ten Twelve Places We Are Thankful to Have Found

1.  Hodgenville, Kentucky - birthplace of Abe Lincoln.  About 10 states claim good ol' Abe in some way, but he really was born in Kentucky.

Cuckoo put himself in charge of the map of the park.

They went all out to impress and protect.  All that's in that building is the little, empty log cabin in which Lincoln was born.

2.  Horse Cave, Kentucky

We've been in lots of caves, but this is the first time we've been in one where the cave didn't have lights to guide us.  There were 3 flashlights for 14 people.  Caves are dark, ya'll.

Back to fresh air, freedom, and light!

My mom and Cuckoo taking a break after climbing the 203 steps to get out of the cave.

3.  Memphis, Tennessee

3a.  Shelby Farm Park - There are gobs of things to do at this park; riding horses, paddleboating, disc golf, hiking, biking, and observing buffalo to name a few.  We spent most of our time here at the gigantic playground.

Half an hour alone was spent playing this game of "Catch the football I toss to you as you slide down".  The slide was really slick, so half the time, the slider landed in a ball at the bottom.

3b.  Island Queen River Boat/Beale Street Landing

The roof of the gift shop/ticket booth is a huge hill of grass.  As Giant says, "Rolling down that hill will mess you up."  He would be the kid in the photo who can't stand up straight.  :)

I do believe the wind was in Star's eyes.  

 3c.  Huey's Restaurant

The food was good, but the atmosphere was better.  People were encouraged to use their straws to shoot their frilly toothpicks into the ceiling...

and sign every surface in the building.

4.  Near Little Rock, Arkansas - Bryan and I lived in Little Rock for the first 7 months of our marriage, so these things weren't completely new to me.  Some parts were very, very different, though.

4a.  The Big Dam Bridge wasn't there 19 years ago.

That bridge isn't for cars.  Walkers and bike riders only.

4b.  Pinnacle Mountain was, but back then a person could drive to the top.  Not so today.  There are two trails up the mountain, and the kids chose the "more rugged" one.  "Rugged" my butt.   

The first 10 minutes of the climb was peaches and cream.  Full of skipping and hopping.

Rocks got real real quick.

Big, helter-skelter rocks as far as the eye could see.

We took several breaks and sent photos down to my mom, who wisely decided to skip this activity.

It took us about an hour to scale that mountain, but we did it!  The kids were troopers, especially those little boys.  They didn't complain one time.  Until we got to the top.  There were so many bugs at the top, we could only stay and celebrate for a minute.  So many bugs!

We chose to avoid death by going down the less rugged side.  

5.  Hot Springs, Arkansas 

Inside one of the luxurious bathhouses.

There is a reason the town is called Hot Springs.  This is Cuckoo after he put one tip of one finger in one of the springs.  For 10 minutes, he hopped around yelling, "It's hot!  It's hot!"

The big kids thought the water felt great.

  6.  Cairo, Illinois

The only reason to visit Cairo.  The town is just plain sad, but it is the best place to see where the Ohio River dumps into the Mississippi.  It was awesome.

- Apple Valley Hillbilly Gardens and Toyland, near Paducah, Kentucky.  Just go to their website to see more.  This place is fantastic.  For so many reasons. 

The "sorry we're open" signs are for his neighbors.  The neighbors and the county took him to court, wanting him to take down the one building he put up to start a toy museum.  After he won, he went all out to turn this property into hillbilly heaven and annoy the neighbors as  much as possible.

He's all about giving the hillbilly version of famous art.  In this case, Cadillac Ranch has become Lawnmower Ranch.

- Jungle Golf, out in the middle of nowhere, Kentucky - We stopped just to play some miniature golf, but when we went to pay, the woman asked if  we were going to do anything else while there.  Anything else??  Um, yes.

First, we golfed...

Buttercup is a little bit a lot less than good at putting.

and then we climbed on golf carts to tour the little zoo they had in the woods behind the golf course.

We could stop as often as we wanted to visit and feed the animals.

Emu photo bomb.

They thought I was going to crash into them with my golf cart.

Anyone still with me??

Wake up!  I'm done! 

Future posts will not be quite so photo heavy.  I promise.

Now, I'm sure you have quite a list of things for which you are thankful this week.  Tell me about them.

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 Your hosts

A Fly on our (Chicken Coop) Wall, Amycake and the Dude, Considerings, Finding Ninee, Getting Literal, I Want Backsies, Mother of Imperfection, Rewritten, Thankful Me, The Wakefield Doctrine

An InLinkz Link-up

One Challenge. Do I Get Points for Trying?

P.J., from a 'lilhoohaa, has a photo challenge each month where he announces a theme.  The participants have one month to take five photos based on that theme.  I have never participated, not because I don't want to, but because I forget to take the photos.

This month's theme is ONE, since it is the one year anniversary of this challenge.

I remembered to take the photos, but only managed to take three.

Boo.

I'm putting them out here anyway, seeing as how it's the closest I've ever gotten to conquering the challenge.

FYI:  It's hard to take a photo of your feet while you're swinging.  It's even harder to take a selfie.  Remind me to show you sometime.

Construction on the new orangutan exhibit at our zoo is wrapping up.

Exterminator screening off the birds' entry point to our attic.

Have a lovely day!

Short and Sweet Thankfuls, TToT Week 41

The quickest thankfuls you ever did read on my blog comin' atcha.

I am thankful...

1.  that I get to be a stay-at-home mom and can simply take off on an adventure with the kids.

2.  for my husband, who doesn't begrudge us the fun and adventures we take while he stays home and goes to work.

3.  that my mom is healthy enough and crazy enough to join us.

4.  for the opportunities my kids have to grow and be brave.  Three days after school starts back up, my little 6 year old Turken will be reading the introduction to the all-school Mass.  There will be at least 600 people in the congregation, and all eyes and ears will be on him.

5.  that I am able to help a friend with the care of her ill mother.

6.  for good books.  I have read a whole bunch of good books lately.  I most recently finished Yvonne's book, Drawings in Sand.  The main character and I have basically nothing in common, but she has plenty in common with someone I know.  I often felt like I was in my friend's head as I read, and many of the things the character said are things my friend has said.  It was almost eerie sometimes.  Nice work, Yvonne!

7.  that my name was pulled out of the hat to win an iPad mini at our school's fundraiser.  The kids were hoping it would become their iPad, but um...no.

8.  for our kids' love of game-playing.  For months, Cuckoo has been watching the rest of us play Settlers of Catan.  This week, he told us he had watched long enough.  He wanted to play.  Not only did he play, he beat us all.  Turken received Ticket to Ride (USA version) for his birthday, so between the two games, we've been having lots of family together time.

9.  for all of my nieces and nephews.  I have lots of them, and I enjoy seeing them every chance I get.  (I will this weekend, when we all get together to celebrate all of the March birthdays.)

10.  for my smartphone.  It will make keeping in touch with Bryan and all the other people who want to keep track of our no-plans spring break trip easy.  And fun.  I'll be taking all sorts of photos and putting them on Instagram so my dad doesn't worry about us too much.  (I'm "inthecoop" if you want to follow along, too.)

That's it for me.  I have to put the finishing touches on the packing of the stuff.  You cannot even believe the organizational system I have going on here in my living room.

Something new I learned...when kids gather laundry from the dirty clothes baskets, they just grab the easy, large articles of clothing.  The small things, like socks and underwear, get shaken to the bottom of the hamper.  While this fact makes packing for a trip very difficult (as no one has clean underwear or socks, even after two days of non-stop washing and drying and folding), it completely explains the putrid feet odor forever hovering in their bathroom and bedroom.  I do appreciate an easy fix to a putrid feet odor.

Your turn.  What is making you want to yell, "Thank you!" for all to hear?

Have a lovely day!

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 Your hosts

A Fly on our (Chicken Coop) Wall, Amycake and the Dude, Considerings, Finding Ninee, Getting Literal, I Want Backsies, Mother of Imperfection, Rewritten, Thankful Me, The Wakefield Doctrine

An InLinkz Link-up

Crossing My Fingers that Car Sickness Is Our Biggest Problem. Basically, Panic Is Setting In.

The countdown to our road trip is on, and I'm starting to panic.

Good grief, what was I thinking?  Who takes 6 kids on a road trip with zero plans??

Me, apparently.  Because instead of, I don't know, making plans, I'm cleaning out my purse.  And painting my toenails.  Real important stuff when you are about to embark on a road trip.

In a weak moment this morning, I asked the kids, "Should we pack a tent?  I'm afraid that at least one night, we're going to be sleeping in the van down by a river."  They simply paused from their bagel-eating to look at me.  They knew if they just sat there quietly, I'd answer my own question.  Which I did.  "No, you're right.  We won't have room for tents.  We barely have room for ourselves with all this other stuff we're packing."  "We" went on to discuss our lack of foresight when buying the 12-passenger instead of the 15-passenger van.

Yup.  It's going well.

Bryan, for his part, is doing his own panicking.  He would never tell me to cancel the trip, but he's making subtle hints.  Last night he suggested, "Remember Nashville?  It has all sorts of fun things to do.  The zoo.  The Parthenon.  The fun museums."  His hinting didn't make me book any hotels, but it did make me wonder if he secretly reads Dyanne's blog.  That would annoy me, since he doesn't even read mine all that often.

He has also handed me a Hilton card with all the phone numbers I can call if I decide to book a hotel in advance.  And this morning, he said, "Once you get to (someplace I can't recall), you can decide whether to go more southeast and head towards Gatlinburg."

There's a reason he plans all of our vacations.

I know there are plenty of people out there who can't even stand the thought of road tripping with kids, never mind road tripping without plans.  I'm not worried about the road tripping part.  Our kids are great travelers.  When they aren't throwing up from car sickness, they are a dream.

Our trip home from Disney two years ago.  Thirty minutes into the 20 hour drive, one child vomited.  15 minutes later, a second child did.  While I took photos, my mom held the bag of vomit-covered everything that Bryan handed to her.  Notice Cuckoo, still strapped into his car seat, "reading" as if nothing gross is going on behind him.

If you are planning on taking a road trip with kids, I've got some wisdom to share.  We've done this lots and lots and lots of times.

1.  Keep them well fed.  Hungry kids are cranky kids.  A steady supply of food will go a long way to keeping everyone content, if not happy.  When feeding the children, I look for fast, mostly healthy ways to do it.  Fast food is fast but gross.  Restaurants can be good, but they take time and require more sitting.  Our solution is to pack a lot of food.  If the kids are doing well, we'll eat in the car.  If they are squirrelly and need a break, we stop.

On a trip to St. Louis when I was pregnant with Giant.  The rest stop was closed, so we just got off at the next exit and ate in the grass next to a hotel parking lot.  Those boxes are the best things I have ever purchased in my entire life.  I don't think Tupperware sells them anymore, which is a darn shame.  They are awesome.  I still use the same ones I bought 13 years ago.

Our favorite foods to pack include cheese sticks, hard-boiled eggs, individual fruit containers (ex: applesauce cups, boxes of raisins, or pineapple tins), cups of peanut butter with pretzels, fruit leather, peanut butter crackers, granola bars, grapes, carrots, sandwiches, and cheese quesadillas.  Basically, anything that doesn't require a fork or spoon.  (My kids are able to "drink" their applesauce out of the container.)

2.  Give them things to do.  Busy kids are happy kids, so make sure they have things to occupy themselves.  I get carsick if I turn around much while Bryan drives, and I have no desire to sit in the back with them.  The kids are on their own when it comes to entertainment.  Poor, deprived children that they are, we have never had a van with a TV in it.  Each child has a desk in which he can pack toys and other activities but also use as a flat surface on which to write or play.  Activity books are great, whether they are mazes, hidden pictures, brain teasers, color-by-number, or MadLibs.  There are lots of travel games from which to choose, and if they are magnetic, even better.  They always pack crayons and pencils and a notebook.  (Loose paper is a pain in the neck.)

The day before the trip, we go to the library so each child can pick out a bag of books.  The littlest kids are only allowed to pick board books, as I don't like to pay for books little kids rip to pieces while sitting behind me.

Notice the library books between Phoenix and Buttercup?  How about the kids' camera for Giant?  And the small water bottle for Star?  Helps to keep those smiles all the way to our final destination.

As for electronic devices, the older kids are allowed to bring their iPods.  They get to use them until the battery runs out.  Basically, that gives them 2 hours.  The little kids are allowed to use my phone to play, but I limit them to about 30 minutes.  I save this phone time until the kids have played with everything they have brought and are getting restless.

3.  Stop often.  This is the key to any successful road trip.  For us, the vacation starts the moment we get in the van.  Why wait until we get to our final destination?  If possible, we have a buffer day on either side of the trip to allow us to stop and do fun things along the way.  Even if it's not possible, we still add some fun to the drive.

Every town has a school, and every school has a playground.  Our kids have played on many of them all over the country.  Parks are everywhere, and a short hike is a great way to burn some energy.  We stop and enjoy the touristy things in the cities we travel through.  For example, we made a great find in the zoo in Ft. Wayne, Indiana.  Little museums and historical sites dot every state, and they are usually cheap or even free.

If nothing else is available, we turn rest areas into parks.  We can play tag, have a relay race, throw a football, chase the squirrels, or follow the leader.  I don't know why, but one of the favorite games of younger kids is to simply play "follow directions".  I stand in one place and tell them what to do.  For example, I tell them to skip to the tree, then hop on one foot back to me.  Over and over again, they want me to tell them what to do.  It's simple, easy, and the perfect way to get the sillies out.

One year I took the kids on a trip to visit my sister in Hilton Head.  This was taken at a rest area on the way.  Some stranger saw the kids playing and me taking some photos for Bryan and offered to take one of all of us.

Basically, be flexible and prepared.  Be especially prepared for car sickness.  No one wants to travel naked and surrounded by vomit simply because Mom and Dad forgot to have extra clothes, trash bags, and wet wipes handy.

Nobody.

It looks like the entire gulf coast will be hanging out in the 70s for our trip, so that's where we're headed. Yes, the coast spans 3 states (and parts of two more), so it's not really narrowing things down much, but it's a start.  We looked at a map to give the kids a better idea of distances and possibilities, so everything from New Orleans to Destin to Atlanta are possible turn around points.

I noticed today that my dad has now gotten an Instagram account to keep track of our travels.  Feel free to do the same.  My tag or whatever it's called is "inthecoop".

Do you have any tips for us and our travels?  What do you do to make sure your road trip is fun and headache free?

Have a lovely day!

Bats, Birthdays, Big Things, and (Possibly) Bad Ideas

A quick rundown of what's been going on around here:

One:  Finally, after 15 and a half years, we have discovered the one and only thing that Phoenix has inherited from me.

My mad bat-catching skills.

On Saturday, if you remember, I was at "Prom" while Bryan was out of town.  The six children were at home by themselves.  At approximately 8:00, as they watched a basketball game, a bat flew through the room.  Once they agreed that, "Yes, I saw it, too," they went after it.  Unfortunately, after searching the entire house, they couldn't locate it.

At approximately 9:30, as two of them were heading to bed, the bat made another swoop through the TV room.  The kids were ready.  And by ready, I mean Buttercup was under a blanket, Giant ignored it, and Star and Phoenix grabbed the butterfly nets.

From what I'm told, Star was quite stealth in his attempts to find the bat, all crouched down and ready to pounce, until the bat actually came near him.  Then he ducked.

Phoenix, on the other hand, stood tall.  When that bat came through, he swung with all his might and knocked that bat right out of the air.  The bat went skidding under the couch.  He used the net to pull it back out into the middle of the room, where they discovered that the bat was most really, certainly, dead.  He scooped it up with a book and tossed it out into the yard.

Where it remains to this day.

While I feel bad for the bat, I couldn't be more proud of the kids.  No one ran screaming from the house, and Phoenix, my nervous, awkward, procrastinator, took charge and dealt with the situation.

Now, I just need to teach him how to catch it so it can continue to live its little bat life, eradicating the bugs from our yard.

Two:  Yesterday was Turken's 6th birthday!  He wanted to take snickerdoodles in for his class, then have lasagna for dinner and a marble cake with brownie moose tracks ice cream for dessert.  He got it all.  After opening his gifts (some Legos and a new version of Ticket to Ride) he ran them upstairs and put them under his bed.  Didn't want anyone to be confused as to which Legos and game were his, apparently.  It seems everyone we know has a birthday around this time, so between their parties and spring break, Turken won't get to have his birthday party with his friends until sometime around the middle of May.

Three:  The kids have special things coming up.
   Buttercup and Star are in the middle school musical, and the practices are getting long and frequent, gearing up for next month's production.
   Buttercup will be graduating from 8th grade soon (It's a big deal for our school, since the kids have all been together since kindergarten.), and there are tons of 8th grade activities between now and then.
  Turken will be doing the introduction to the school Mass (reading a paragraph in front of 600 people!) as soon as spring break is over.
 Giant has been working so hard on his country project and will finally participate in the parade of countries at school tomorrow (which means rolling and toothpicking lots and lots of Canadian bacon tonight).  Plus, he just found out he has the part of the March Hare the 6th grade's musical.  (The trial of Alice from Alice in Wonderland.)
   Phoenix has been really improving in volleyball and has moved up to a starting position on the team.  Plus, he has been asked to participate in a state-wide Math competition.  Only a couple of other freshman were asked, so he's pretty excited.  Most importantly, though, he will be receiving the Sacrament of Confirmation in a few weeks.

Four:  We have had it with this crappy weather (It snowed yesterday!), so we are blowing this popsicle stand.  The kids and I are heading out for spring break.  Don't ask me where we're going.  I have no idea.  We're just going to drive south, stopping whenever something catches our eyes. The only stop I know we will be making is in Kentucky to pick up my mom. It will either be a raging success, full of fun and adventure, or an epic disaster, full of car trouble and grouchiness.  We will spend a week on the road, or three days, depending on which way it goes.  I won't be blogging each day, but I'll be taking notes.  And I'll be posting photos of it all on Instagram, in case you want to follow along.  (Search for "inthecoop")

Look for the post titled, "What Do You Get When You Load Six Kids and Your Mother in a Van, Then Take Off On a Vacation With No Reservations or Even an Idea of Where to Go?"  It could be up anytime between Tuesday and Sunday.

Place your bets.

Have a lovely day!